The Englishman, whose remarkable boxing career started in white-collar boxing, with no amateur experience, was set to face Jarrell Miller for the interim WBA heavyweight title. But after Miller was forced off the card, undefeated Australian contender Justis Huni stepped in on three weeks’ notice.
And at Portman Road, home of Wardley’s beloved Ipswich Town Football Club, it looked like it would be Huni walking away with the gold, as the Australian settled into his rhythm early and appeared to be stacking rounds in a dominant display of boxing skill.
Huni consistently beat Wardley to the punch, and scored with several multi-shot combinations as he kept the hard-hitting Englishman on the back foot throughout their main event matchup. And, as the fight entered the 10th round, it appeared that Wardley needed a miracle to turn the tide.
Incredibly, he found one.
With Huni happy to stand in front of Wardley and initiate exchanges, Wardley did something he’d barely done in the nine rounds prior – he planted his feet and threw back.
And, as Huni stepped forward looking to land another salvo of shots, Wardley dipped his hips and unleashed a lightning-fast right hand that connected flush on “JPH’s” chin and sent him crashing backward to the canvas.
Portman Road erupted at the sudden, unexpected turn of events, then went ballistic as Huni failed to beat the referee’s count.
It meant that Wardley, despite being second-best for the majority of the contest, captured the vacant interim title and put himself in the mix for a shot at a full version of the heavyweight championship.
“Look, I don’t profess to be any kind of Usyk, Justis Huni, someone with all the skills. But one thing I do know how to do is win fights. Dig deep, find a bit of heart, bite down on that gumshield and find a way to win – and that’s one thing I had to do tonight.
“Justis Huni is a great operator. But, no matter what, I’m going to be aggravated at myself because we’ve rinsed, repeated, drilled everything, over and over again. I know this gameplan down to a tee, and I should have performed better in some of them rounds. That’s not always the way it goes. Sometimes you just have to find a different way to win. So look, we pulled something out the bag.”
Wardley also paid tribute to Huni, who boxed superbly for much of the fight before being caught by a one-shot KO in the 10th round.
“He’s a great boxer. Some great skills, and he showed me everything he had tonight,” said Wardley.
“He pulled out all sorts of different tricks. I really didn’t expect to kind of bank rounds like that with Justis. I had him hurt, I had him going a bit in the first round, as well, and maybe that gave me a bit too much confidence going into the following rounds. But we re-jigged, got my head, screwed it back on, and stuck to the gameplan.”
